European United Left/Nordic Green Left European Parliamentary Group

Solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike

Time

GUE/NGL MEPs have shown their solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike by reiterating their support to the fight for justice for Palestinian people and Palestinian prisoners.

The MEPs are calling on EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton and Council President Herman Van Rompuy to publicly condemn Israel's use of administrative detention and to demand that Israel applies international laws on human rights that would protect the rights of the hunger strikers and Palestinian prisoners in general.

Since 24 April, nearly 300 Palestinian detainees and prisoners have been on hunger strike against Israel's unjust administrative detention policy in order to highlight Israel's violation of a 2012 agreement that stipulated the use of administrative detention should be limited. In reality, administrative detention is ordered frequently by the Israeli military for any act of opposition to the Israeli occupation.

Read the declaration (FR version below):

MEPs call for the respect of fundamental rights, dignity and the fight for justice for Palestinian people and Palestinian prisoners

Since April 24, nearly 300 Palestinian detainees and prisoners have been on hunger strike against Israel's unjust administrative detention policy and to highlight Israel's violation of an agreement concluded in 2012 that the use of administrative detention should be limited and that administrative detention orders should not be renewed without new evidence and before they were brought before a military judge.

Administrative detention may be ordered by an Israeli military commander in the occupied Palestinian territories for "security reasons", which include peaceful political activities and any act of opposition to the Israeli occupation.

The hunger strikers denounced threats and other inhumane treatment against themselves and their families.

Moreover, the activities of the Israeli army including mass detentions, attacks and violations on the human rights of Palestinian citizens, the construction of new settlements and the siege of Gaza, continue to be on the Israeli agenda.

During this period of renewal of the European Parliament and the executive bodies of the European institutions should in no way be used as an excuse to leave Palestine, its population, prisoners and the peace process in isolation and condemned to international silence.

The European Union must express itself on the violations of human rights that occur every day in the occupied territories. Therefore, the MEPs who have signed this appeal call on the European authorities and, in particular, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and the President of the Council to:

publicly condemn the use by Israel of administrative detention, which violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and international laws that guarantee fair trial standards;

seek immediate application of international humanitarian law and international laws on human rights in order to protect the rights of the hunger strikers and Palestinian prisoners in general;

request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of the Israeli occupation and control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, on the basis of more than 1,700 Israeli military orders;

establish a commission for an international inquiry and visits to prisons to observe the treatment and living conditions of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons;

condemn the construction of new settlements and the demands made by settlers regarding the Palestinians.